NTL BOYS' BASKETBALL: TOWANDA CONTINUES TO IMPROVE ON THE COURT (2021-03-19)

BY CHRIS MANNING
Northern Tier Sports Report
It may have been another losing season for the Towanda boys’ basketball team, but the record doesn’t tell the whole story.

They started the year 2-2 and easily could have picked up a few more wins with close losses to NEB (53-52), NP-Liberty (49-40), Canton (51-49) and Athens (63-51) - all district playoff teams.

So, even though they finished 4-15 it didn’t feel like a four win season, and they did sweep the season series with Williamson.

“I am really glad we were able to get most of our games played this year,” said coach Ryan Napp, who returned to the bench after a few years off. “The league was very competitive, and I was glad to see how well the NTL represented our league in district play. It was unfortunate one team from the district advanced to the state tournament because we had several teams that missed on that opportunity due to the circumstances.”

Napp will remember how his kids had to be flexible due to all of the weather and Covid-19 interruptions.

“When looking back on this season, I will likely remember playing six games in six days, and rarely having two practices in a row,” said Napp. “Between the shortened season, and several snowstorms, we played a lot of games in a short period of time.”

They finished strong, though, winning a non-league tilt against Milton (46-43) that showed how far they had come.

Senior Kolby Hoffman became a reliable double-digit scorer by the end of the season while Dante Ottaviani, Elias Shrawder, Octavious Chacona, Logan Lambert, Teagan Irish and Justin Schoonover flashed enough potential to give hope for another step next season.